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Trump Says He Has Chicago’s Crime Problem Solved

(CBS) – President Donald Trump on Friday said he could fix Chicago’s violence problem with one phone call.

In fact, the president told Mayor Rahm Emanuel about a Chicago police officer who guarantees he can fix the problem. Trump, speaking before police in New York, said he met the Chicago cop during a campaign appearance last year.

“I said what the hell is going on,” Trump recalled. He says he asked the officer, “How long would it take you to straighten out the problem?”

The Chicago police officer told Trump if he had the authority, only “a couple of days,” the president said. The Chicago officer told Trump the police know who all of the criminals are.

Friday’s reference by Trump wasn’t the first time the president has mentioned this encounter. He’s never publicly disclosed the officer’s name, but claims he told Emanuel about the officer.

Mayor Emanuel pushed back at the president Friday. Trump has frequently criticized Chicago for its violence, at one point saying he would send “the feds” in to sort things out.

“We can only hope the president is as interested in attacking crime as he is in attacking his attorney general, transgender members of the military and the three largest cities in the country,” Emanuel said in a prepared statement.